Playboy Bunnies
- Attractive females wearing one-piece satin
uniforms with a fluffy cotton tail,
oversized-bunny ears, high heels and nylon
stockings featured on the syndicated variety
show
PLAYBOY AFTER DARK/SYN/1969.

Hosted by Hugh Hefner, the founder of
Playboy magazine, the program served up a hip
bachelor pad party as Hugh Hefner hobnobbed with
celebrities who told jokes, sang songs and
interacted with several Playboy Bunny regulars
on the show.

A few years earlier Hefner hosted a similar show
called PLAYBOY'S PENTHOUSE/SYN/1959-60 that was
taped at WBKB-TV in Chicago.

Playboy Bunnies are the personification of the
Playboy corporate mascot, namely a
rabbit.

On February 29,1960, the first Playboy Club
opened its doors at 116 E. Walton Street, just
off Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Variety referred
to the new Playboy Clubs as "20th Century
Dreamworlds."

The club offered a penthouse like atmosphere
where only a select group of key holding VIPs
could enjoy music, an alcoholic beverage and a
lusty gaze at the luscious staff of Playboy
Bunnies who were there to serve their clientele.

The inspiration for the Playboy Bunnies, a sort
of serving wench for the 20th century, came from
a similar group of "Gaslight Girls" who served
customers in Gay Nineties costumes (corsets and
fishnet tights) at the exclusive Gaslight Club
in Chicago.

Following the suggestion that Hef's girls should
sport rabbit costumes, Ilsa Taurins, then
girlfriend of Playboy executive Victor
Lownes, pieced together a makeshift costume
(with help of her seamstress mother) and the
Playboy Bunny was born.

In 1962, French seamstress Renée Blot modified
the original Bunny costume by reducing the size
of the ears, and adding a bow-tie collar, shirt
cuffs to its scanty ensemble. A rosette shaped
name tag adorned the right hip of each Bunny so
seated customers could easily ID their servers.

"Look but don't touch" was the mantra for the
members of the Playboy Clubs. It wasn't
until 1975 that Playboy Bunnies were
given permission to date the club members (known
as keyholders - who received a rabbit-headed
metal Playboy key - replaced by a plastic
key-card in 1966).

The satin Bunny costumes originally came in 10
to 12 colors but later branched out to include a
rainbow of designs like psychedelic swirls and
polka dots. But, the color scheme of the Bunny
costumes were often determined by what best
complemented the Bunnies own skin coloring.

The color black was a sign of achievement and
only issued to Bunnies with special or senior
status. In some cases, a Playboy Bunny was
elevated to Playmate status. Jan Roberts was the
first to earn the honor in August 1962.

What is the difference between a Bunny and a
Playmate? Bunnies work at the Playboy
Clubs and wear the corporate Bunny costume.
Playmates appear in Playboy magazine
centerfold pictorials and usually are not seen
wearing much of anything.

On occasion, a Playmate will don a Bunny costume
for a photo shoot or special event. There have
been over 25000 Bunnies but only 500 Playmates.

When a Bunny left the employ of the Playboy
clubs, they were required to hand in their
costumes. Examples of the early costumes can be
found on display at The Women's Museum in
Dallas, The Chicago Historical Society, and The
Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

Actress Kathryn Leigh Scott spent three years as
a Playboy Bunny in the New York
Playboy club before gaining fame as Maggie
Evans on the Gothic soap opera DARK
SHADOWS/ABC/1966-1971.

Her book "The Bunny Years" chronicles her days
as a Playboy sex symbol. The book is being
developed into a film by Disney and Touchstone.

By the late 1980s, the Playboy Club phenomenon
was at an end, due mainly to dwindling
memberships. But during their heyday over
1,000,000 keyholders flocked to admire thousands
of beautiful Bunnies in L.A., Chicago, New York,
London, Montreal, Tokyo, among other cities
about the globe.

The last U.S. Playboy Club, in Lansing, Michigan
closed on July 31st 1988. The last official
Playboy Club, in Manila, closed during 1991. The
clubs may be history but the legacy of the
Playboy Bunny has earned a special place on the
shelf of popular culture and will not soon be
forgotten.